340 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XIV 



governing your headstrong boy. I find the way of 

 governing headstrong men to be very similar, and I 

 believe it is by practising the method that I get the 

 measure of success with which people credit me. 



But they are often very fractious, and it is a bother 

 for a man who was meant for a student. 



Poor Spottiswoode's death was a great blow to me. 

 Never was a better man, and I hoped he would stop 

 where he was for the next ten years. . . . Ever your 

 loving father, T. H. HUXLEY 



He finally decided that the question of standing 

 again in November must depend on whether this 

 course was likely to cause division in the ranks of 

 the Society. He earnestly desired to avoid anything 

 like a contest for scientific honours ; l he was almost 

 morbidly anxious that the temporary choice of himself 

 should not be interpreted as binding the electors in 

 any way. 



I give the following letters to show his sensitive- 

 ness on every question of honour and of public 

 advantage : 



BRECHIN CASTLE, BRECHIN, N.B., 



Sept. 19, 1883. 



MY DEAB FOSTER We got here yesterday. The 

 Commission does not meet till next week, so like the 

 historical donkey of Jeshurun I have nothing to do but 

 to wax fat and kick in this excellent pasture. 



1 As he wrote a little later : " I have never competed in the 

 way of honour in my life, and I cannot allow myself to be even 

 thought of as in such a position now, where, with all respect to 

 the honour and glory, they do not appear to me to be in any way 

 equivalent to the burden. And I am not at all sure that I may 

 not be able to serve the right cause outside the Chair rather than 

 in it." 



